Boroughs ‘to have more responsibility for own air quality’

Responsibility for air quality now lies with individual boroughs, according to a public health specialist at the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Transport for London (TfL).

Speaking at University College London today (April 17th), Lucy Saunders explained that recent changes proposed in the Health and Social Care Act 2012 could see the amount of power local authorities have over air quality increase significantly.

Speaking at the 'Effective Local Action on Air Pollution in London' conference today, the expert noted that the legislation means that each borough must have a statutory Health and Wellbeing Board.

She said: “For the last 35 or so years public health responsibility has sat within the NHS, but this has now moved into the local authority. What this means in terms of air quality and the health agenda in the borough is that local authorities are now responsible for public health in their areas.”

“You can now go to your local authority and say ‘you have responsibility for public health in your borough, what are you going to do about this?’”

This Health and Wellbeing Board is required for publishing a borough-wide Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

These strategies are to be based on health priorities identified in the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) of each borough. These JSNAs consider the health and wellbeing needs of the area’s population, however currently some boroughs are missing information about air quality.

However, Ms Saunders said the aim is for every borough’s JSNA to have a section on air quality.

The expert noted that air pollution has now been listed as an indicator for health protection on the Public Health Outcomes Framework for England 2013-2016. This was updated in November 2012.

She said: “Air quality is now on the Public Health Outcomes Framework, which is a really big achievement.”